by Ricardo Ribeiro

Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steel

Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steel

I love Apple, since my first iPod Classic a few years ago, ever since I became hooked. I guess that, since I am someone who appreciates design, I cannot stop noticing the outstanding good taste and simplicity that the company puts on every single piece of hardware and software they make.

Since I decided not to buy an Watch yet because I believe there is so much to improve on the next versions, I decided to buy instead a pocket change priced Xiaomi’s Mi Band. You may not know but Xiaomi is one of the most successful startups in China and unapologetic for “borrowing” Jony Ive’s designs…

I consider not having a closed mind, and I decided to give it a try, and you know what, it is fantastic for the price it costs, my intention was to monitor my steps and sleep and this does the work just fine. What I wanted to point out was that a company that is now the second leading company in the world in fitness wearables with high profit is a company that decided to copy Apple.

Or, from other perspective… what if Xiaomi just applied the Neuro-liguistic Program technique called modeling*? What a fantastic idea, right? If you have a brand, a business or a small or big company why not do the same? See what is working for your best competition and “borrow” from them what you think will serve you right. Don’t be proud, don’t waste your time reinventing the wheel and learn from the path others did already.

But if you decide to go this road, you should do it well. It isn’t correct at all to copy someone else’s ideas or products, but you may borrow the concept and apply it your own way, maintaining the identity and soul of your own products and ideas. Like Steve Jobs once said, “good artists copy, great artists steel”.

* Modeling is the art of recreating excellence on human behavior. See more details about modeling and NLP.